France has matched its record dry spell of 31 days without significant rainfall, the country’s weather service said Tuesday, amid concerns over water reserves in parts of Europe still reeling from last year’s severe drought. 

With rainfall over the entire country of less than one millimetre a day since January 21, weather service Meteo France said the absence of precipitation equals the record set in spring 2020. 

Winter is normally a crucial period for recharging groundwater levels with rainfall.

"Winter is normally a crucial period for recharging groundwater levels with rainfall"

The number of days without rain has “never been seen” in winter before in records going back to 1959, Meteo France said Tuesday. 

Last month was the third-warmest January on record in Europe, with temperatures on New Year’s Day reaching all-time highs in some parts of the continent, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitor (C3S).

Europe endured its second-hottest year ever in 2022, with France, Britain, Spain and Italy setting new average temperature records. 

The heat was compounded by severe drought, unprecedented in centuries, across the region.

Crops withered in European breadbaskets and the historic dry spell drove record wildfire intensity and placed severe pressure on the continent’s power grid and water reserves. 

This combination of pictures shows a firefighter helicopter dropping water to put out a wildfire in Navalmoral, Avila province, on August 16, 2021 (top) and the same area one year after on August 25, 2022 (bottom). Photos: Photo: Cesar Manso / AFP

The World Weather Attribution service last year calculated that the agricultural and ecological drought over the Northern Hemisphere was at least 20 times likelier because of human-caused climate change, warning that such extreme dry periods would become increasingly common with global heating. 

In Spain, one of the European countries most exposed to the risk of drought, water reserves are currently at an average 50.7 per cent of capacity, compared to an average of 60.8 per cent over the last 10 years, according to the latest national hydrological bulletin.

But in some regions the situation is far more serious. 

"The measures include banning the use of drinking water to wash the exterior of houses or cars or to fill swimming pools, and reducing the amount of water used for irrigation"

Barcelona and large swathes of Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia have imposed water restrictions due to the lack of rain.

The measures include banning the use of drinking water to wash the exterior of houses or cars or to fill swimming pools, and reducing the amount of water used for irrigation.

Meteo France said the current dry period in the country was not expected to last much longer, with rain forecast in the south of the country on Wednesday.

The previous record for a winter dry spell in France was 22 days in 1989.

High waves crash along the shore as Cyclone Freddy nears the island at the village of Sainte-Anne, on the French overseas island of La Reunion on February 20, 2023. Photo: Richard Bouhet / AFP